Brian Alexander, msnbc.com contributor reported:-
`And Thursday, Boston talk radio host Jay Severin was suspended after calling Mexican immigrants "criminalians" during a discussion of swine flu and saying that emergency rooms had become "essentially condos for Mexicans."
“This disgusting blight is because MEXICANS ARE PIGS!” an anonymous poster ranted on the “prison planet” forum, part of radio host and columnist Alex Jones’ Web site. `
There is even talk of conspiracy. Savage speculated that terrorists are using Mexican immigrants as walking germ warfare weapons, " bring an altered virus into Mexico, put it in the general population, and have them march across the border.”
As more than 140 cases of H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, have been confirmed across the United States — from San Diego to New York City — the growing public health concern has also exposed fear and hate.
It has rattled the world's financial markets, pushed oil prices down, caused a run on surgical masks and hand sanitizers, closed schools and churches, postponed sporting events, prompted travel bans, rerouted cruise ships.
Eric Gay / AP-Workers disinfect a classroom at Byron P. Steele High School in Cibolo, outside San Antonio, Texas. Officials at Steele closed the campus and the district's other 13 campuses for at least a week, hoping to stop any more possible spread of swine flu.
Rodrigo Abd /Ap photo- In this April 29, 2009 file photo, passengers wearing face masks as a precaution against swine flu walk inside a metro station in Mexico City. 3:07 p.m. ET, 5/1/0
David J.Philip/Aphoto- In this April 29, 2009 file , microbiologist Gilbert Ortiz handles samples while testing for swine flu at the Houston Department of Health and Human Services in Houston. A toddler from Mexico City who traveled to Texas with family to visit relatives became the first confirmed death in the U.S. from swine flu. 3:06 p.m. ET, 5/1/09
Blamimg `the 0ther`
Fearmongering and blame are almost a natural part of infectious disease epidemics, experts say .
Often, a disease outbreak is an excuse to vent pre-existing prejudices. “It’s fear of people we do not know or who look different,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan and author of “When Germs Travel: Six Major Epidemics That Have Invaded America Since 1900 and the Fears They Have Unleashed.”
“You take the fear of the unknown that already exists and then combine that with a real or perceived threat that is contagious disease and it’s explosive.”
During the medieval Black Plague, Europeans blamed Jews, saying they poisoned the wells. In an 1892 cholera pandemic, the U.S. blamed immigrant European Jews. In the flu of 1918, Markel said, “Italians blamed the Spanish. The Spanish blamed the Italians. For HIV it was gay men and Haitians.”
Americans “have a history of trying to keep ourselves ‘pure,’ ” Fairchild explained. “You saw it after the Civil War when slaves were denied citizenship, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when we were alarmed over southern and eastern European immigrants. There were fears that they would pollute America’s germ plasm, make us a weak nation of imbeciles.”
“People who do not really know anything are creating ideas that don’t really exist,” said Sergio Ornelas, owner of a bi-national publishing and advertising business in El Paso. “I am worried these kinds of articles and comments might create panic.”
Fighting racism with information
Blame-the-victim reactions can be fought with clear, accurate information about the disease and about how it is spreading, said Dr. Larry Kline, a San Diego physician and member of the United States-Mexico Border Health Commission.
Please see the previous article to see facts about Swine Flu-it is important to know your facts right and take the necessary precautions .
The number of H1N1 cases worldwide now stands at 787 with two additional deaths reported in Mexico, the World Health Organization announced .Mexico has the largest number of confirmed cases with 506, followed by the United States at 160. So far, 19 people in Mexico and a toddler in the United States have died from the virus.
The WHO has confirmed cases in 15 other countries: Canada, with 70; the United Kingdom with 15; Spain with 13; Germany with six; New Zealand with four; Israel with three; France, with two; and Ireland, Austria, China, South Korea, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Costa Rica, each have one.
It has also reached the shore of Hong Kong and South Korea.
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